The world was a fuzzy, shifting watercolor, the colors bleeding into each other like a half-finished painting. Naruto's head throbbed, a dull, persistent ache that vibrated through his bones. He tried to blink the haze away, but it clung stubbornly to his vision.
"GAHH! The Hell'd you do that for Pervy Sage!?!"
He tried to push himself up only to fail miserably, a groan escaping his lips as every muscle protested.
"You know what? I'm gonna lay here a bit longer. But mark my words, when I get up, I'm kicking your ass!"
Saying so he stopped struggling and prepared to listen to Jiraiya gloat while he rested, only the gloating never came. 'What the heck? Did he seriously leave me here?! Tch! He probably went to peep at the bathhouse again. Wait until I get my hands on you, I'm gonna use that technique Kakashi Sensei used during the bell test!' He thought with a grin. 'Speaking of which...' Since Jiraiya wasn't there and he had nothing better to do at the moment given he couldn't move he decided to try and practice the technique Kakashi Sensei told him about a couple of days before the exam. though he couldn't help but feeling like he was forgetting something. With his eyes closed, he focused on the sounds around him. He identified a river from the sound of rushing water; he heard the familiar chirping of crickets and the rustle of leaves; he also heard the chirping of birds even if they sounded a bit different. 'Oh well, who cares? Bird noises sound like a Shikamaru thing anyway.' Refocusing he moved on to smell, the air was just as different as the dirt, carrying the scent of unfamiliar flora and a damp musty cold kind of like in the land of waves, definitely not the dry warmth he was used to. Next Naruto stretched out his fingers with his palms flat and felt the ground beneath him. It was rough and gritty, unlike the usual dirt in the training grounds. That dirt while not soft had enough give that you wouldn't crack your head if you landed wrong. This stuff felt like if you whacked your head, you better make sure you weren't missing a clump of hair. 'Shitty Perve, couldn't even move me somewhere comfortable.' After the thought Naruto chastised himself for getting distracted so easily and focused back on what he was doing. Moving onto the next step he started pumping chakra through his hands into the ground and grinned as he felt it start moving back into his hand and towards his head, giving him a picture of what was around him even though at the moment he could only feel about a five-foot radius. 'Heh who needs someone like Pervy Sage to teach them anyway? At this rate I'll win the Chunin exams by myself!'
Naruto practiced for the next half hour before he could finally sense the trees he could hear nearby and when he could...
'What's that thing in that tree? A person?' "What the heck are you doing? Have you been sitting there the whole time?!" He asked irately. 'Wait a minute... They're too small.' " Hey! You're not Pervy sage. Who the hell are you?!"
After a moment a soft voice reached his ears. "I don't know who that is, but my name is Kurapika."
"Why were you just sitting there, are you some kind of creep?"
"No, I pulled you from the water and once I saw you starting to wake, I decided to observe from a safe distance, you are armed after all."
Hearing the slight irritation in the voices tone, Naruto chuckled sheepishly. Figuring he'd recovered enough; he sat up and looked towards the holder of the voice. There he saw a guy a couple of years older than him, with blond hair and wearing a blue and yellow poncho. "Nice to meet you, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"
The boy just gave a silent nod, making Naruto's brow twitch. "Hey, I've already got two verbally deficient brothers, I don't need another near mute hanging around."
All he got in return was a small smirk. Seriously! What was with him always being around condescending, pretty-boy jerks? Sasuke, Kakshi, Neji and now this guy. It's like he was cursed!
"You think you're real funny, don't you? Well keep it up buddy, well see how funny it is once I feel better...... So how far from the village are we?"
"I'm not sure which village you're referring to, but the closest one is about sixty miles north of here."
Naruto whistled at that. "Man, I'm a bit farther than I thought. that river must really be moving fast. And what do you mean 'you don't know what village', you know anywhere else they wear this headband?" He asked humorously.
"No, but that's not saying much considering I don't recognize it in the first place."
"Ehh? Have you been living under a rock?" This guy was weird. Who doesn't know the Symbol of the ninja village whose territory they were standing in?
I have not, but I don't think we are where you believe. You didn't float down the river, you appeared from a ripple about fifty feet in the air and fell into the water. Wherever your home is, It's definitely nowhere close."
Hearing Kurapika's words panic began to coil in his gut, cold and sharp. Where… where am I?"
Then like one of Lee's kicks to the face his memories rushed back. Jiraiya, standing at the edge of the gorge, his face filled with mischief. The earlier talk about needing to start working on his control of the Kyubi's chakra. (though why he needed to learn it now with Jiraiya instead of waiting for his mom to get back from her mission to learn was beyond him.) Then, as he was working to drain his chakra, he felt shove from behind and suddenly he was falling into the gorge big enough that Gamabunta could fit between the walls.
He had started the hand signs so he could summon the boss toad but before he could finish, he'd fallen into a maelstrom of distorted colors. He couldn't see, breath or even think straight, like tumbling through murky rapids made of paint. There was neither up, nor down, just an endless, sickening tumble. Pressure crushed him from all sides, squeezing the air from his lungs, suffocating him in nothingness. His world had warped into a kaleidoscope of agony, that felt like it lasted forever. Terror, raw and primal, had clawed at him, whispering that this was it. This was the end. He was going to disappear into this bizarre, colorful void. (Come to think of it, the feeling was eerily like the time Jiraiya threw him into the women's side of the bathhouse during the monthly Kunoichi meeting, after he'd pissed the hermit off one-to-many times. He shivered at the memory.)
And then, just as his consciousness began to fade, the pressure disappeared and a sudden rush of air filled his lungs, followed by a brutal impact, and then nothing but the heavy blanket of pain and exhaustion dragging him into darkness.